pen kit acyrlic?

[loosvelt]

Can you make stems out of the acyrlic pen kits sold at places like woodcraft? Looks like the same kind of lucite found on PME, but I am not sure.

[RadDavis]

I would think so. As long as it's cast acrylic it should work.

Rad

[Danskpibemager]

Both you and Rad are correct, they are essentially the same thing. There is one thing to be aware of however, some of the pen blank manufacturers use different formulas of acrylic resin for casting and the smell of some is very "plasticky" beyond the normal smell. The cast acrylic rodstock as available at Delvies has no after smell when done working it. Trial and error of sorts. Hope this helps!

Regards,
Kevin

[Philthy]

I have used the Woodcraft Pen Blank acrylic for three pipe stems so far with no issue. My second pipe I made (posted somewhere earlier) - first from scratch used a black with thin white swirls and I thought it looked good. Works fine (ie drilling, turning, sanding, and polishing) for me but I havent bought any REAL stem stock to compare it against. I have 5-6 of them to make more. I stay away from the really wild colors tho.

They also have some blanks with real coffee beans cast in them that I really want to try!